Personalized vehicle navigational directions formulated for a route, having a predetermined starting location and predetermined destination location, have become increasingly popular. Many vehicle operators utilize vehicle navigational directions that are based upon an operator-identified starting location and an operator-identified destination location. In one system, a vehicle location detection system determines the current location of the vehicle, which is utilized as the starting position, and an in-vehicle operator utilizes an in-vehicle user interface panel to input the destination location. In another system, a user may utilize an Internet interface to identify a starting location and a destination location, from which the system may formulate navigational directions. In yet another system, a user may utilize a mobile telephone to input a destination location, and then may receive navigational directions from the mobile telephone's current location to the destination location via the mobile telephone.
In vehicle navigation systems where the starting location is the vehicle's location, as detected by a location detection system, and an in-vehicle operator inputs the destination location at the in-vehicle user interface panel, the navigational options presented to the user (e.g., selecting the shortest route or the fastest route, avoiding freeways/expressways, etc.) and the ease of navigating through the navigation system (e.g., menus) may be limited by the in-vehicle user interface panel. In such a system, the user may be unable to request navigational directions in advance. As an example, the user may be unable to request the formulation of navigational directions to be delivered at a predetermined or to-be-determined time. As another example, the user may also be unable to request the formulation of navigational directions before the vehicle is in a desired starting location.
In vehicle navigation systems where a user requests the navigational directions from a location remote from the vehicle via the Internet, the user is typically required to input both a starting location and a destination location before navigational directions are formulated. It is recognized that “cookies” or other similar digital files stored locally on a computer may allow the computer to recall previously entered starting and/or destination locations, however, such information recall may be limited to locations previously input on a particular computer.
In navigation systems where the starting location is the current location of a mobile phone and the destination location is input in the mobile telephone, the navigational directions are delivered to the mobile phone. It is recognized that inputting the destination location into a mobile telephone may suffer from some of the same drawbacks as described hereinabove with respect to inputting a destination location into an in-vehicle user interface panel. Additionally, the user generally is limited by the location of the mobile phone. Since the starting location is determined by the position of the mobile phone, vehicle navigational directions may be achieved when the user's mobile phone is located in the vehicle (or in close proximity thereto).